Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Reputation, Secrecy and Repression Essay Plan

Reputation, Secrecy and Repression Essay Plan

‘I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment. You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others…’

àEnfield tells Utterson about his impressions of Hyde.  had limited interactions with Hyde but he is very reluctant to talk about them, he protests to Utterson that to answer questions about Hyde is a ‘slippery slope’. Enfield would prefer to ignore Mr Hyde and Hyde’s violent behaviour altogether

àStevenson suggests that Enfield and Utterson are repressed and reserved, stereotypical Victorian Gentleman.

àRather than root out evil and violence in their society they’d prefer to sweep it under the rug

àThe theme of repression and secrecy is crucial to the novel, as Stevenson draws an important connection between Jekyll’s own pressed evil and his friends willingness to press their knowledge of Jekyll’s evil.

àStevenson could be said to criticize Victorian society that allows evil to survive as long as its juts out of site.

‘Poor Harry Jekyll," he thought, "my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace…’

àUtterson is aware that Jekyll has been getting into trouble form his youth, and thus h wonders if his behaviour =might have something to do with the sins of his youth

àUtterson claims that sin has no statue of limitations’, the sins of Jekyll’s past will stay with him forever.

àUtterson’s words will prove correct over the course of the novel. Hyde is the very embodiment of Jekyll’s dark, secret nature, proof that all human beings contain deep, sinful secrets, which they try and fail to repress.

‘I…